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CBS pulls Rihanna from NFL pregame show

Rihanna, a prominent former victim of domestic violence, will not be part of the opening segment on Thursday Night Football this week, a CBS Sports spokeswoman confirmed.

“We pulled multiple production elements” to make room for an update on the Ray Rice scandal.

On Sept. 2, CBS announced that “CBS Sports and NFL Network will open each game of Thursday Night Football in 2014 with Jay-Z’s Grammy Award-winning song “Run This Town,” featuring megastar Rihanna.” In light of Rice’s firing Monday by the Baltimore Ravens, (not to mention the awful juxtaposition that would have made considering Rihanna’s past), and to make room for an update on the situation, CBS decided to shelve that opening.

Instead, the pregame segment will offer an update on the Rice story, reported by “CBS This Morning” anchor Norah O’Donnell.

CBS initially announced that, “The Thursday Night Football open will be accompanied by the narration of Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle. Cheadle’s narration sets the scene to kick off the NFL week on Thursday nights, highlighting the division rivalry games and asking the question, who will “Run This Town”?”

That plan was nixed.

“We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told network told SI.com. “A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.” McManus also told SI.com, “It’s important to realize we are not overeacting to this story, but it is as big a story as has faced the NFL.”